PROTOCOL

How many of
you are ready to return to Our Savior for Mass??!! No—don’t put up your hands. I think I can guess! I wish it were just that simple. After long deliberation, it’s the judgment of
the staff at Our Savior that we will remain with “private” Masses
(Reconciliation still 4-5 pm Saturdays, on the porch) until Pentecost weekend
(30-31 May). This might change, too; we
want to see how the COVID-19 crisis in Mobile either eases or increases.

When we
finally do open up for “public” Masses, we’ll still have to abide by the State
and Chancery protocols, of course. We
don’t want to be the folks who unintentionally cause another spike in COVID-19
cases. How will we balance this?

Strict
marking off of rows of seats and seats within rows will be enforced. Sadly, if no families attended Mass, we’d be
limited to about 65 in our church! Given
other considerations (including fear of transmitting to others
leaving/returning to pews after Communion), that number might be as low as
30. Of course, with households with
multiple members, the numbers would be higher.
But they’d still be very low compared with what we’re used to. We will have to figure out a way for folks to
make “reservations” to attend Mass—“first-come, first-served” would be a recipe
for anger, frustration, and great disappointment for too many.

The
requirements of disinfecting will certainly complicate things. Water fountains and bathrooms will be closed;
the “cry room” will allow only 1 family.
We will need to have sign-in rosters on the porch before Mass perhaps
with non-touch thermometers, in order to track things if anything goes wrong
with infection. You will be STRONGLY encouraged
to come to church wearing masks (though these are not allowed for receiving the
Eucharist).

Getting
people into the church in an orderly way (= 6’ of separation) would be hard
enough, but not nearly as difficult as getting people to leave that way! 6’ of separation, single-file, going straight
to cars… You can see how many folks
would be very unsatisfied by these requirements. But if we cannot follow them we cannot have a
“public” Mass. And no—the Archbishop
does not allow outside Masses.

We are taping
off rows of pews and marking seats; we are removing hymnals and supplements; we
are laying out a flow-pattern for coming to Communion. We will have to discourage (I don’t believe
I’m writing this) singing by the congregation:
the risks of spreading infection are multiple times more likely with
singing than speaking because of the projection that singing entails—unless
EVERYONE is wearing a mask. We’ll be
starting out with just a musician and a cantor.

There will be
no Special Ministers of Holy Communion as I alone am authorized to administer
the Sacrament (Body of Christ only); I’ll have to figure out about Lectors. No servers will be permitted.

Is this
really the “new ab-normal”? Abnormal,
certainly! New—absolutely! Will it last? PTL, and with much prayer and proper
precautions, no. The Italians have a
saying: Chi va piano, va sano e lontano (Whoever goes slowly, goes safely,
and goes a long way.). That’s our goal.